


The 1 A.M. Diner Girl

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, F/M, There's an incest joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:57:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your order was ready in seconds, and she knew exactly how you liked your coffee (even though you ordered it black, trying to look cool). You'd never met the girl before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The 1 A.M. Diner Girl

The flickering sign seemed to beckon to you from the side of the lonely highway. When you pulled into the parking lot, you saw the burned out letter on the sign reading, "Be 's 24-hr!" was a C, not an N, as expected. It shouldn't have surprised you; you'd driven by this old diner in broad daylight many times before, but you had never really payed much attention to it before.

  
A red and blue neon "OPEN" sign glowed in the front window, but glancing in told you this was one of those twenty-four hours when the diner didn't get a lot of business. Better, you supposed; you weren't in the mood to be surrounded by chatter (you rarely were, but even less so, now). The bell on the door tinkled weakly, drowned out by the creak of rusty hinges as you pushed the door open and looked around.

  
The sole occupant of the diner seemed to be a waitress dozing at the counter. Sleeping deeply, more like: her legs looked like they might give out underneath her at any moment, and her face was buried in her arms, thick, curly black hair concealing her features. You were immediately irritated; she should be fired, shirking her duties like that. Sure, there had been no one in the diner before you arrived, but here you were, a paying customer, and your first impression of the diner was its lazy help. You almost, no definitely, wanted to loudly ring that bell next to her snoozing head and wake her as rudely as possible.

  
Unfortunately, you didn't get the chance.

  
The Waitress' head sprung up like a jack-in-the-box, curls bouncing and vibrant green eyes wide behind coke bottle glasses. Her freckle-smattered cheeks glowed red upon seeing you, and she quickly pushed her gangly frame up to stand at her full, quite tall, height. She dusted off her apron and reached up one bony-fingered hand to adjust her thick glasses, and those green eyes narrowed, then widened again, upon examining you.

  
"S-sorry!" She squeaked, smiling a nervous, buck-toothed smile, and stumbling over to you on almost irritatingly long legs. God, but everything about her was tall and thin, so much so that she seemed to tower over you, and you were suddenly conscious of your short stature and permanent belly pooch. You didn't even try to fight your scowl, since the universe seemed determined to pile annoyances on you tonight.

  
"Um, are you listening?"

  
You glared at her, but she didn't even flinch, looking at you curiously, expectantly. "Of course I am," you snapped, lying through your teeth, "now are you going to show me to a seat or not?"

  
"I just said you can sit anywhere. There's no one else here."

  
You opened your mouth, then closed it, then repeated that useless gesture a few more times before conceding to yourself that you had nothing to say in reply, and irritably plopped down on a stool right at the counter. You thought you heard a giggle and possibly a snort from the waitress, but when you swung your head around to glare at her again, she was nowhere to be seen.  
"What'll you have to drink?" asked a voice from directly behind the counter.

  
You swung your head back around and there was the waitress, sporting a ninety-percent business, ten-percent mischeif smile and holding a notepad in hand, pen poised to scrawl your order. You quickly wiped the wide-eyed look from your face, though you still wondered how she moved so fast, and if the air was a bit warmer, if the very edges of her curls had a quickly-fading green glow, and if there was a faint crackling in your ears, you failed to notice.

  
"Coffee," you said, picking up a menu that you thought might not have been in front of you before, "black."

  
"Sure," said the waitress, and the word had the smallest of sarcastic tilts to it. You glanced up from your menu, but she had already disappeared to the kitchen. With a grumble you looked back down at the menu, scanning its contents for anything that looked half edible. There was a breakfast, lunch, and dinner section, and you could not for the life of you figure which one applied to one o'clock in the morning, but didn't feel like asking the waitress. You weren't much in the mood for dinner foods, anyway, and so turned your attention to the breakfast specials.

  
Clink! A mug was set before you and you reached for it, not looking up from the menu, and took a sip, not caring that the hot liquid scalded your tongue. The familiar scent and flavor of your favorite brew, diluted heavily with milk and a pinch of cinammon, just like you liked it, warmed you so that you completely forgot that it wasn't what you had ordered. You didn't even wonder how this waitress, whom you had never met, surely, knew how you preferred your coffee.

  
"Are you ready to order?"

  
You looked up from the menu to see the waitress smiling at you again. You thought, if you had buckteeth that huge, you wouldn't smile so much. For the first time since entering, you spared a glance at her nametag: Jade, it read. Something in you stirred at the sight of that name, but not so much that you took notice, instead writing it off as the buzz of caffeine.

  
"The flapjacks."

  
"With scrambled eggs, and sausage gravy on the biscuits, right?"

  
You looked, surprised, at the waitress'-- at Jade's-- face. Her green eyes betrayed nothing, as she looked at you as if she hadn't just predicted the rest of your order perfectly. You narrowed your eyes at her, but her smile did not falter. If anything, she looked rather amused.

  
"Yeah," you said, folding up your menu and placing it in her outstretched hand, noting the multicolored rubber bands that decorated her fingers. She took it, and walked back into the kitchen with almost deliberate slowness, considering her earlier speed. Something about her silhouette, you thought, looked almost familiar--but something about it seemed incomplete. That was a strange thing to be thinking about this complete stranger though, and you immediately brushed it off, staring down into the still pool of your coffee.

  
You heaved a sigh, bringing the mug up for a sip, thinking on the events of your night, and avoiding thinking of the future with all your might, as if ignoring it would slow its advance. All thoughts of the rent, the bills, or the job market were immediately and angrily banished from your mind. You turned in your seat to look out the window at your shitty car, and couldn't help but remember that your insurance payment was nearly due. You gritted your teeth angrily, coffee sloshing from your mug as it shook in your hand. If it weren't for your pathetic, disgusting excuse for a boss--

  
"Here you go. Enjoy!"

  
A steaming plate of flapjacks and a high voice interrupted your thoughts. Jade smiled a wide service smile even as the steam fogged her glasses, and you thought your meal had cooked awfully quick. You snorted, thinking of a greasy kitchen full of heat lamps and speared the very top flapjack, gracelessly shoving the whole thing in your mouth. Surprisingly, it was warm and fluffy and tasted nothing at all like a rubbery pancake that had been sitting under a heat lamp. More like it had been cooked only a few minutes ago and allowed to cool just enough. No way that could be, though, unless Jade had predicted your order even before you had picked up your menu.

  
You looked up from your meal but Jade was no longer standing before you. A suspicious glance around the diner saw her seated two seats down from you, nursing her own mug of coffee. You wanted to make a snide comment about taking a lunch break with a customer to wait on, but the wonderful taste and just-enough saltiness of scrambled eggs distracted you.  
The only sound for a few minutes was the scrape of your fork against your plate and the obnoxious slurp of Jade drinking her coffee, until her voice broke the lull once again.

  
"Bad day?"

  
Jade looked at you expectantly, elbows on the table and chin in her hands, and though she had no business knowing, you never were one for keeping your greivances to yourself.

  
"Oh, I don't know, would you call losing your shitty job right after your piece of shit landlord raises the rent a bad day? Would you call waking up to the smell of mold because your landlord wants to run you out so he can move in rich-ass hipsters a bad day? Would you call blowing a tire on your falling-the-fuck-apart jalope on your way to work, then getting written up for being two dog-fucking minutes late while the prick who walks in ten minutes late gets off scot-free, getting called into the boss' office and told to pack up your shit and leave because that piss-guzzling bastard has been wanting to hire his rich friend's son who doesn't even need a goddamn job and you're brown and dispensable a goddamn bad day?"

  
Instead of looking sympathetic, Jade looked confused.

  
"What?" You snapped.

  
"You didn't mention the milk. Usually at this part of the dream you complain about the milk being spoiled when you made your cereal."

  
You looked at her like she was crazy. Because she was. She was fucking shit-bananas, and you might be too, because the milk _was_ spoiled when you made your cereal, and there was no way she should know that.

  
"Dream?"

  
Those green eyes widened, and those long bony fingers took hold of the dark skin of one gangly arm and pinched hard. Whatever result Jade was expecting, it wasn't the one she got, and she shot out of her chair as if it had shocked her, then turned a horrified stare on you.

  
"Oh, no. Oh, shit!" Jade clenched her fingers in her bouncy curls, "I'm sorry. I am _so_ sorry, Karkat, you _really_ do not need this right now. Forget I said anything, okay?"

  
"How the hell do you know my name?" You cautiously stood from your seat, backing up a few steps to keep a safe distance between the two of you. You hadn't met her before, had you? Surely you would remember someone so utterly insane.

"Oh, no," she repeated, green eyes screwing shut, "Oh nooooooo!"

  
Something clicked in you, and that warmth and that crackling and that green glow you hadn't noticed before suddenly became sharp in your memory, and that incompleteness to her silhouette suddenly made perfect sense. It had been a long time since you had seen her without dog ears.

  
You snorted. Perfect ending to a perfect day, right?

  
"Hi again, idiot," you sneered and Jade's panick abruptly ceased. Those sun-green eyes focused on you, and if you looked closely at them and felt particularly imaginative, it almost looked like tears were forming at the edges of them. Her expression, you thought, looked guilty as hell.

  
"I wasn't going to say anything," she said, hands fiddling with the hem of her uniform, "you're having a hard enough time as it is, without--"

  
"What, without the memory of winning a war for all of existence weighing me down? Gosh Jade, thank you for trying so valiantly to spare me from the crushing depression of victory."

  
Jade's expression of guilt quickly morphed into a glare, and she spat, "Not everyone takes suddenly remembering an entire past life as well as you, apparently, do, Karkat."

  
For a moment you were pleasantly surprised and impressed with yourself for doing just that before you realized what Jade meant. "Oh, shit. Sorry, Jade, I didn't--"

  
"As if the sudden, horrible identity crisis wasn't enough, I was _dating John_ when it happened. I am sure you've lived long enough as a human to understand why _that_ might have caused some _issues_."

  
"Oh," you said, "Oh, _ew_."

  
"My thoughts exactly," said Jade, throwing her hands into the air, "and he doesn't remember yet, so I had to make up some bullshit to break up with him. We'd been dating for _eight months_. He _cried_ , Karkat. Do you have any idea how _awkward_ that was?"  
"Y'know, I'd just as soon not think about you dating your ecto-brother and everything that entails," You said, feeling your coffee and scrambled eggs stir uncomfortably in your stomach. Jade's entire face turned a flaming red.

  
"We didn't--AUGH! I cannot believe I was worried about you, you asshole! Clearly, you're just fine!" She threw her hands in the air once more and made to storm into the kitchen and probably lock the door behind her. You knew, now, just how good she was at ignoring and avoiding you when she was mad, and quickly lunged forward to grab her wrist. She whipped her head around, curls dancing angrily and eyes burning brighter than the green sun, if that was possible, and you put on your best contrite face.

  
"I'm sorry--no, I really am--look, Jade. . ." You weren't used to being at a loss for words, but without any anger to fuel a furious tirade, you might as well be mute, "I _missed_ you. I didn't know it until now, but I did. I'm . . . I'm _really_ glad to see you again, okay?"

  
Jade held the glare for a few more seconds, but eventually gave up and deflated. "I missed you, too," she said quietly, eyes dropping to the ground and feet shuffling, "I have dreams, you know? Like I used to, on Prospit, even though Prospit isn't even a thing in this universe. I see things. I've been seeing you, over and over, for _months_."

  
She laughed, but still didn't raise her eyes, "I started working here a week ago. I took night shift. I told my boss that it was because of classes, but really it was because I knew you came in here at one in the morning, on tuesday, after getting fired from your shitty job. You ordered black coffee but later you asked for milk and cinnamon. You ordered flapjacks with scrambled eggs, and biscuits with sausage gravy, and you complained about your day."

  
She sniffled, and used her free hand to wipe her eyes, "I was so nervous I didn't even sleep before coming to work. I fell asleep waiting for you, and I thought it must be a dream again."

  
You couldn't believe Jade would be so nervous about meeting you, until she spoke again.

  
"This time . . . This time I wanted our first meeting face to face to be something good."

  
You groaned.

  
"Shit, Jade, are you still upset about that? I already forgave you. Like ten times, because you wouldn't stop apologizing."

  
"I know, I know," one last sniffle, and Jade finally looked you in the eye, and broke out in a huge, bucktoothed grin, "It's nice to meet you, Karkat."

  
You couldn't help it. You were overcome. You pulled her in for a hug and those gangly arms gripped you as tightly as you gripped her. You were both crying a little bit, now.

  
"I missed you so much," you said, " _Fuck_ , I missed you, Jade."

Jade laughed, "I missed you too . . . F-fuckass."

  
"I will give you a ninety-percent tip if you never say that again."

  
She laughed again. Your grips loosened until you could look each other in the eyes, but neither one of you let go, and you thought maybe, just maybe, now might finally be the time to pick back up on something left off a long, long time ago; back when you didn't know what shaving cream was.

  
"So, since you're not dating your brother anymore--"

  
"You can keep the tip if you never bring that up again."

  
"Deal. Anyway . . . Does that mean you're free?"

  
She smiled, and if those big white ears had still been there, you think they might have been twitching happily.

  
"I get off at six."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry it's not RHW and I'm sorry it's yet another reincarnation fic. It didn't start out that way. Promise.


End file.
